Trait Procrastination, Agitation, Dejection, and Self-Discrepancy

Abstract

The defining characteristic of trait procrastinators is the extension of temporal sequences between their intentions and their corresponding goal-directed behavior. Procrastinators are often acutely aware of these intention-behavior gaps. For example, student procrastinators will recall numerous occasions on which their study behavior failed to match their temporal intentions. Trait procrastinators may also anticipate such discrepancies in their future behavior. These self-cognitions should have implications for the everyday affective experiences of such individuals. This Chapter addresses these implications, drawing from Higgins’s (1987) self-discrepancy theory—a theoretical account that may be most useful in understanding and explaining the behavior of procrastinators.